The Shield Problem(s)

[Carl]

That probably explains it nicely then. plus of course my processer dosen't have SSE2 which dosen't help.

[Musashi]

To be fair, my system's a laptop, and Pentium M's are a little sweeter than an equivalent speed P4... But still, my specs are hardly top flight. Especially in terms of VRAM.

But my little mobile GeForce card seems to work shockingly well, better than you'd expect it to, since I was able to play Quake 4 from end to end...

[Blademun]

Well, fine, what is the professional spear armed infantry unit for that same period then?

Armoured Seargents, Papal Guard, ect. There are probably more that are similar but I can't think of them now. As far as I'm concerned, "Professional Militia" is a Oxymoron, seriously.

Personally, I'd like to see units like the Armoured Seargent, Papal Guard, ect, get a "brace" option to put them up and above the militias so they could actually absorb a head-on cavalry charge. Let Spear militia continue to get bowled over to send home the message that in the early days before professional armies..Knights trully did rule.

Also, to Carl, who's mentioned on several occasions that he wants to merely have the game work as the Devs intended I have this to say..GODS NIPPLES?! Who drank my ale...






And also, we, the paying customers, do not answer to the Devs whims. They answer to us and our desires. Instead of focusing on how to go backwards in game design, why don't we focus more energy on improving this game above and beyond what "The Devs Intended". I know thats probably heresy for questioning the might of our almighty CA gods, but then I'm a protestant..

[Musashi]

Sergeant spearmen, armored sergeants, etc.

Basically all professional spear come from castles.

[PaulTa]

To be fair, my system's a laptop, and Pentium M's are a little sweeter than an equivalent speed P4... But still, my specs are hardly top flight. Especially in terms of VRAM.

But my little mobile GeForce card seems to work shockingly well, better than you'd expect it to, since I was able to play Quake 4 from end to end...

Not bad. I myself can't run the game with playable framerate on huge unit settings, but that's because I desire quality over quantity, so I crank up the visuals (except for shadows and bloom).

I'm running a 2.8 P4 proc, 1 gig of ddr2 RAM, and a eVga 7900 KO. My next upgrade is going to be another gig of RAM, which I believe is the cause of any woes I might have in MTW2. It seems like a really RAM/Proc intensive game.

[Musashi]

You'll cry when you hear this, but I play on huge unit sizes, with unit detail set to "highest" and texture detail set to high.

[PaulTa]

You'll cry when you hear this, but I play on huge unit sizes, with unit detail set to "highest" and texture detail set to high.

Actually, the crying will set in later tonight over some ice cream and bon bons.

Would you mind giving me an above average run down of your system specifications? Proc, speed of proc, ram, amount, speed of ram, size of individual ram sticks, configuration of ram (overclocked, dual channel, etc), graphics card, etc.

[Musashi]

Okey dokey.

Intel Pentium M 1.73 ghz, (Family 6, Model 13, Stepping 8)
1.5 GB DDR2 400 RAM (One 1 gigabye stick and one 512 meg stick)
GeForce Go 6200 64MB Turbocache

I'm not sure about the configuration of my RAM, I know it's not overclocked, because I haven't messed with the default settings of things like that. It's a laptop, it's hard to fix if you break stuff ;)

I'd post a screenie to show I play at max detail, but for some reason the game shrinks the screenshots to 1024x768 from the 1400x1050 I play at, and they don't look as good as it actually looks in play.

[Carl]

Armoured Seargents, Papal Guard, ect. There are probably more that are similar but I can't think of them now. As far as I'm concerned, "Professional Militia" is a Oxymoron, seriously.

They are professional spearmen, and like all professional spearmen they are meant to deal with equally professional and late era Knights.

The purpose of ALL spear armed units in this game is to stop knights of similar era , (but with heavy losses to the spearmen). In addition, for many western European factions at least, Spear Militia are the best anti-cav unit they get prior to Pikes. That’s quite important as that means that mostly they are the ONLY thing you've got infantry wise that CAN be used against knights. Saying they should be annihilated makes no sense under these circumstances.

The Professional militia isn't really an oxymoron at all. You treat all militia as idiot peasants given a set of equipment, no real raining and sent out. Most militia in this game ARE NOT this type of unit. they are semi permanent forces that exist in war time who have decent training with their equipment, (although not as much as proper full time soldiers). They get called up in times of crisis, but unlike most militia, they stay called up until the crisis is over, (rather than only being called up for the problem when it effects them locally). To avoid getting overly long winded my Point is this:

Most Militia units (including Militia Spearmen), are NOT portrayed as useless peasants given proper weapons. They are semi trained levy units that are available at, (nearly anyway), a moments notice and that are somewhat decently trained. Professional solders might be able to beat them 1 on 1. However, if used well the Militia can tip the balance against them.

Let Spear militia continue to get bowled over to send home the message that in the early days before professional armies..Knights trully did rule.

The problem is that isn't balanced and neither me, (nor seemingly the devs based on some things in the game), are willing to put history ahead of balance to say nothing of the fact that Militia Spearmen represent troops equipped with long spears, (units with sort spears get the Light_Spear attribute), who have enough training to know how to brace and fight properly with them. Professional Knights charging into those would get decimated, you've said it yourself.


Also, if you do this I have to ask you WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MILITA SPEARMEN. They can't fight against any other infantry and seemingly you don't ant them to be any good against knights, so in that case we'd better remove them from the game since everything in the game beats them and they serve no purpose :sarcasm:.

Also, to Carl, who's mentioned on several occasions that he wants to merely have the game work as the Devs intended I have this to say..GODS NIPPLES?! Who drank my ale...






And also, we, the paying customers, do not answer to the Devs whims. They answer to us and our desires. Instead of focusing on how to go backwards in game design, why don't we focus more energy on improving this game above and beyond what "The Devs Intended". I know thats probably heresy for questioning the might of our almighty CA gods, but then I'm a protestant..

All right this next bit is going to get nasty, and I’m sorry for that, but a combination of worn out patience, an inability to think of a way to politely phrase this, and the belief that I won't get through to you any other way leaves me feeling like I’ve got no choice really.


Here it is:

If you aren’t interested in a balanced game, DON'T POST IN BUG THREADS.

Simply put these threads are about fixing bugs and creating a balanced game as a result. If your ideas on the matter won't create that, (as having Mailed and Fuedal Knight wail on Militia spearmen wouldn't), then your replies are pointless, detracting from the purpose of the thread, gives us and CA no useful information and are totally unimportant IMHO.

It would save a lot of argumentation and frustration on the part of myself, (and, (I imagine), others trying to create a balanced game), if you left them out of these threads.

By all means express them, I’d never dream of saying you shouldn’t be allowed to express those opinions, just try not to do it in bug threads if it creates obvious IMBA as it dos no good. I'll even create a thread for you all to debate it in as soon as I finish this post.

You'll cry when you hear this, but I play on huge unit sizes, with unit detail set to "highest" and texture detail set to high.

DAMM YOU.

[Musashi]

Carl: Technically, normal spears were never capable of dealing with the late era uberknights (Gothics, Lancers, etc). It was pikes, or go home.

[Carl]

Well I know techincly they whern't, (well probably depens on the spear too). But Blademun said units with Long Spears and the Training to brace them against the ground sould beat cav in his opinion in game. I was pointing out that Militia Spearmen actually do have Long spears and the Training according to the in gam descriptions.

[Zenicetus]

If you aren’t interested in a balanced game, DON'T POST IN BUG THREADS.

Simply put these threads are about fixing bugs and creating a balanced game as a result. If your ideas on the matter won't create that, (as having Mailed and Fuedal Knight wail on Militia spearmen wouldn't), then your replies are pointless, detracting from the purpose of the thread, gives us and CA no useful information and are totally unimportant IMHO.

A problem here is that we don't all agree on "balance." And we may also be mixing multiplayer balance issues with campaign balance issues.

For example, you and I seem to disagree about how powerful horse archers should be in the game. I really wouldn't want to see them diminished, and I believe (yes, in a historical context) that they're currently well-represented in the game.

I also think that militia spearmen are working as intended. The game needs weak units to put stronger ones in perspective, and to provide a feeling that you're building up from scratch in the early campaign. It makes you appreciate the better units when you can get them. There is more to this game, at least on the campaign side, than having units that perfectly balance all other units in some respect.

Now, if we're talking about adjusting unit stats for perfect MP balance, that's a different story. But there is a MP forum for that.

[Carl]

Perhaps I was a littile unclear.

I don't mind diffent PoV. but the idea that cav should dominate all infantry till pikes/pro spears come along is clearly unbalanced. Thats what Bladenum was suggesting and why i'm so annoyed.

I Might disagree with you on HA, but they are a lot closer to balanced than the vaniliia spear units are.

Like I said, in this game if a unit dosen't serve a purpose on the batlefeild it dosen't have a place. Why build Spear militia if everything beats them. I might as well build Town militia who don't get the melee penalties vs. infantry and are thus of some use. Without the ability to beat Maqiled/Fuedal Knights Militia Spearmen simply can't beat anything in the gaame. Yet Bladenum seem to want that.

Now, if we're talking about adjusting unit stats for perfect MP balance, that's a different story. But there is a MP forum for that.

Agreed, allthough this heavily impact MP too.